Questionnaires are good for rating progress

doi:10.1136/bmj.b1504

Published 14 April 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1504
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1504

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Depression severity scores

Questionnaires are good for rating progress

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Kendrick and colleagues compared scores on the severity of depressionwith the rate of referral to the psychiatric services and prescriptionof antidepressants.¹ At face value, responders to the 9 itempatient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) seem to have falsely alertedthe clinicians to act in a more aggressive manner.

It may be a false assumption. The incidence is likely to behigher among those who responded to the PHQ-9. The comparisonat baseline shows a higher proportion of chronic physical illnessesamong this group: 50% higher than in the hospital anxiety anddepression scale (HAD) group. This alone could be the reasonfor the disparity in severity assessment.

Debate over the suitability of questionnaires may never be settledas more new questionnaires are produced to assess depression.The ideal use of questionnaires, however, is to measure progress.To assess improvement, any of the three validated questionnairesis acceptable.

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Gnanie Panch, consultant¹

¹ Chronic Pain Service, Whittington Hospital, London N19 5NF

gnanie.panch@whittington.nhs.uk

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Management of depression in UK general practice in relation to scores on depression severity questionnaires: analysis of medical record data: Tony Kendrick, Christopher Dowrick, Anita McBride, Amanda Howe, Pamela Clarke, Sue Maisey, Michael Moore, and Peter W Smith
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